Minutes of Board Meeting of September 8, 2004

Location: AOL Instant Messenger, private chat room "ASFAR"
Time: 9:00 pm eastern time

Board Members Present: Tevi Abrams, Winston Featherly-Bean, Andrew Jennings, Kevin McCormack, David Schneider-Joseph, Oliver Traldi, Susan Wishnetsky

Members Present: Woty F., Tim H., Jacob K., Daniel M., Justin M., Larissa P., Ben P-S., Morris S., Elliot T.

Visitors Present: Kelli, 2 unidentified

The meeting was called to order at 9:02 pm eastern time.

Reports of Officers

The President, David Schneider-Joseph, reported that he had given two interviews since the last meeting, one for a school paper in California, and the other to XY Magazine.

The Vice-President, Winston Featherly-Bean, arrived later and gave no report.

The Secretary, Susan Wishnetsky, reported that she had failed to get the minutes of the last meeting done. The button-maker for producing ASFAR buttons had gotten broken (although it could still be used slowly and cautiously), and she had ordered a new one; she would send the old one for repair once the new one arrived. She said she was working on a big blitz of mailings to old members in preparation for this year's protests.

The Treasurer, David Schneider-Joseph, reported $134.78 in the PayPal account, which had just been billed $64.75 for five months of YRFire hosting. ASFAR made $4.97 selling books since the last meeting. Susan Wishnetsky reported receiving a check for $54 from a historical library in Wisconsin for back issues of Youth Truth.

The Webmaster, David Schneider-Joseph, reported 29,580 pageviews in May, and about 22,000 so far in June. There was discussion of adding a hit counter to the web site; David pointed out the difficulty of determining the number at which the counter should begin.

The Recruiting Officer, Kevin McCormack, said he was waiting for a membership list from the Secretary, and had no further report.

The Fundraising and PR Director, Andrew Jennings, was not present during reports. He later reported that he was preparing press releases for voting demonstrations and displayed the t-shirt design he had commissioned.

Reports of Committees:

For the Zine Committee, Susan Wishnetsky reported that the Summer 2004 issue was completed and was being prepared for mailing.

The Chair of the Demonstrations Committee, Andrew Jennings, was still not present, but Susan Wishnetsky reported her experiences at city hall and asked for opinions about possible protest locations.

New Business:

Daniel M. addressed the topic of list moderation, expressing his belief that moderation slowed down discussion and prevented certain messages from getting through. David Schneider-Joseph said that there were already three moderators for the discussion list -- himself, Justin Mallone, and Oliver Traldi -- any of whom could approve messages; he suggested adding more moderators. There was discussion about whether David Schneider-Joseph should have approved a certain message from Alex K-P, and whether the board should express an opinion about this. Susan Wishnetsky mentioned that ASFAR's bylaws were vague on acceptability of messages, but she felt that the list rules, which had been approved by the board and were sent to all new members, seemed to support David's decision not to approve the message. David Schneider-Joseph moved to add Tevi Abrams and Kevin McCormack as list moderators, but then withdrew his motion to allow further discussion of other ideas.

Kevin McCormack suggested suspending moderation on a trial basis until the next meeting. Susan Wishnetsky proposed instituting a time limit by which messages must be approved. Daniel M. suggested that placing a member on moderation should be a temporary measure, for perhaps a week, unless extended by the board. After discussion, Susan Wishnetsky reintroduced the earlier motion to add Tevi Abrams and Kevin McCormack as moderators. The motion was seconded and passed 4-0. Daniel asked how many of those present favored listserv moderation; the informal vote was 4 in favor, 2 opposed, and 2 neutral.

Susan Wishnetsky suggested that if a member's message was rejected, they should be informed in an apologetic and deferential way; Woty F. disagreed, saying it should be courteous, but not apologetic. Elliot T. felt that such messages should simply be brief. David Schneider-Joseph stated that these messages were already courteous and brief. There was some discussion of what types of messages were permissable. Kevin McCormack then moved to change Daniel M's listserv status to unmoderated. The motion was seconded and, after some discussion, passed 4-1 with 1 abstention.

Various individuals reported on their experiences trying to arrange and get permission for protests in their areas. Elliot T. reported that his county would not permit any demonstrations at all; other members expressed their belief that this would be unconstitutional.

The t-shirt was discussed, with people suggesting various changes to the design submitted by Andrew Jennings.

David Schneider-Joseph moved to schedule the next demonstration committee meeting for Tuesday, July 20 at 9 pm eastern time. The motion was seconded and passed 3-0. He then moved to schedule the next board meeting for Tuesday, August 17; the motion was seconded, but withdrawn after discussion. David Schneider-Joseph then moved to schedule the next meeting for Wednesday, August 18 at 9 pm eastern time; the motion was seconded and passed 3-0.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:46 pm eastern time.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Wishnetsky
ASFAR Secretary